Neil Overy, Zones of Dissonance: Cape Town, Koeberg and Nuclearity, AVA Mezzanine Gallery
Exploring the intersection between environmental and social justice issues, Neil Overy's photographic work is unapologetically political in nature and seeks to challenge dominant discourses by providing alternative framings of social justice and environmental issues.
As a researcher and photographer working on social and environmental issues, this exhibition is the culmination of specific academic, activist and artistic work Overy has undertaken to raise awareness of the problem of nuclear power within the context of the Just Energy Transition in South Africa project.
The project examines the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station and its relationship to Cape Town. It adopts historian Gabrielle Hecht’s notion of ‘nuclearity’ that explores, among other things, how landscapes, spaces and objects that are ‘nuclear’ or part of the ‘nuclear energy complex’ are often ‘hidden’ from citizens because of their apparent banality. And yet, like the demarcation of emergency accident zones, these spaces, places and objects are in a constant state of potentially ‘becoming’ something inimical to life.
The project documents ‘nuclearity’ in and around Koeberg Nuclear Power Station and Cape Town, and emphasises the entirely rhetorical emergency planning zone around Koeberg, conceived to, in Susan Sontag’s words, ‘distract us from terrors’.
I use both digital and film in my photographic practice because of their respective aesthetic qualities. A number of different camera techniques were used to represent ‘nuclearity’. A pinhole and an instant camera were used to indicate the speed at which a ‘landscape of becoming’ can take on a terrifying new radioactive meaning; one which is likely to last for centuries. Images were also taken with old camera lenses from the 1960s which are coated with radioactive thorium oxide (an everyday example of ‘nuclearity’) until health concerns saw them banned in the 1970s. Various photographic and Photoshop techniques were also used to try to see or represent radiation, something which cannot be detected with any human senses and to represent the secrecy that surrounds nuclear power.
The City of Cape Town vehemently opposed the construction of Koeberg because health officials considered that it was far too close to the city. Archival research located planning documents relating to urban development around Koeberg. Some of these documents, which detail the need to restrict urban development, are layered over photographs of significant urban development around Koeberg, revealing how commercial interests have trumped the health interests of the citizens of Cape Town.
The exhibition should be considered in the light of Eskom’s decision to extend the life of the Koeberg by another 20 years beyond its original decommissioning date of 2024, and with regard to the government’s determination to build more nuclear reactors at the Koeberg site after 2030. Just as the rest of the world is turning away from nuclear power in light of its dangers and excessive costs, South African seems intent on embracing its toxicity.
Overy's project grew from his visual work recently undertaken as part of an MPhil in Environmental Humanities South at the University of Cape Town. Full funding for the project was generously provided by the Heinrich Böll Foundation. Proceeds from the sale of photographs will be donated to Earthlife Africa to enable them to continue their award-winning campaign against nuclear power in South Africa.